


Replay Value(original)

by Listless_Songbird



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Aromantic, Asexual Character, Canon-Typical Body Horror, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Season/Series 03, Slow Burn, Time Travel Fix-It, Very slow but they'll get there eventually, of a sort, trans!Jon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2020-06-23 17:51:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19706440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Listless_Songbird/pseuds/Listless_Songbird
Summary: Jon once again gets dragged along behind cosmic forces he doesn't quite understand and somehow ends up in the past.Hindsight is 20/20 and Jon is going to do things right this time.Probably.THIS FIC HAS BEEN REWRITTEN AND MOVED TO A SEPARATE FIC. SORRY FOR THE CONFUSION





	1. The Here and Now

**Author's Note:**

> Every fandom needs a time travel fix it fic, and I needed a way to give these characters healthy support networks and open communication Because Apparently Im Not Going To Get That In Canon Am I?
> 
> So enjoy! I'll probably be updating once or twice a week depending on my schedule!

It may have been a poor decision to record his own Statement.

He thought it would be fine, especially considering the fact that he’d recorded his encounter with his first Leitner and that hadn’t caused any unexpected problems. It was perhaps a bit more intense than normal, what with his actual memories layering on top of the first person view of the event that always happened with the true Statements. But then again the Statement had been about a single event, and he hadn’t recorded it inside the archives. 

He can’t be fully blamed for his assumptions however, it’s not like he was ever given a manual for what not to do. And of course Elias refused to tell him anything. Ever. But he had resigned himself to radio silence in that regard. 

It wasn’t even supposed to be an actual Statement anyways. It was just supposed to be a way to organize his thoughts and record his memories before they were corrupted by his own downward spiral into monsterhood. Memories were supposed to be subjective, supposed to be tinged by emotion and warped by time but as he began to Know more and more all subjectivity of an event began to get cauterized away. So he was recording his perspective now, while he could still trust that he wasn’t remembering more than he had actually experienced. That he wasn’t Seeing too much or Knowing how his experiences looked from the outside. So this was just supposed to be a record of his memories. He had been planning to put it on tape because he had always thought better when he could speak aloud, and apparently he was too far past human from his voice to record on digital anymore.

The first warning sign that things were not going to go the way he wanted was the amount of tape recorders. He had gotten so used to them just popping up when he needed them. Or showing up during conversations he wanted a record of, that he had ended up treating them the same as he would a aloof cat who wandered into the room. That is to say nodding respectfully and then politely ignoring them until they left again. So when several showed up at his desk and more on the shelves behind him, all Jon did was give them a courteous head tilt before going back to sorting his notes. Therefore he didn’t pay as much attention to that fact as he should have. 

The other sign was the slowly building pressure against the door in his mind. It didn’t seem to be slowly and inexorably seeping into him as it usually was. The pressure seemed, heavier somehow, like it was pulling instead of pushing, trying to counter Jon’s movements and keep him in one place. 

Between both of these Jon should have known something was going to happen. It had been obvious, and to a certain extent he knew that things weren’t going to end well, but he was exhausted and had so many things he needed to be doing after this and he just wanted to get it done. Besides, he had made it this far by making one mistake after another and forcing himself to live through the aftermath. One more disaster wouldn’t change the world.

So he settled into his chair and prepared to start from the beginning. He frankly hated things that wandered through the narrative, jumping back and forth in time with no real forward progression. In a statement that confusion was typically a solid signifier of the Spiral, so easy to categorize, but still a headache to read. 

The beginning of this mess of a life he was living began– Well it hadn’t actually started when he was promoted to head archivist or even when he read his first true Statement, not really. It had begun when Martin had come back from his run in with the Corruption.

With Jane Prentiss.

That was the first time he felt the Eye stir within his mind. Not that he understood what was happening at the time, but it had been the first time one of the Eye’s marked had been threatened while he was the archivist and the Eye hadn’t been pleased. Jon wasn’t either of course, despite all appearances in those early days his team were quite important to him, but in that moment his displeasure had an echo, or a duality to it that hadn’t been there before.

So that was where he started. He shuffled that page to the start and opened his mouth. Before he could even get a single word out he heard the scattershot clicks of dozens of tape recorders all turning on and beginning to play. Then he abruptly felt a tugging at the back of his throat, so strong he almost gagged as words began to spill from his lips. 

_“Statement of Jonathan Sims, The Archivist regarding his past._

**_Statement begins”_ **

The ground fell away beneath him and suddenly all Jon could feel was an overwhelming wave of information and knowledge that seemed to be grasping at him, trying to pull him under. But soon even that feeling got drowned out too, under layers upon layers of voices. Each one telling their story, their Statement. The voices grew to a crescendo and Jon tried to hold on, but soon he was overwhelmed and his awareness faded away. 


	2. Well Now Im Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> doing two chapters at once for the first upload!

**_–Statement ends.”_ **

There was an eternity of a moment where he was nowhere. There was nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to even delineate where Jon stopped and the nothing began. 

Then something shifted and he was skipping over and through a series of moments, events and people flicking past him faster than he could keep track of. Everything was spinning out around him faster and faster leaving him lost in the whirlwind before finally it ended. Jon only barely stopped himself from pitching forward in his seat at the nausea of being superimposed over himself. The feeling of his mind and body merging back together like the inverse of passing out. 

Jon blinked quickly trying to get everything around him in focus. It all seemed familiar, but off in some way, like he was in a memory of a place. Like he should know what was happening even though he firmly didn’t. He cleared his throat briefly and attempted to regain his composure as he tried to figure out what exactly was going on. 

He was in his office, and Martin sat in front of him looking worried and disheveled, because–

Suddenly his thoughts seemed to shift and settle like sand falling through a sieve, bringing his ‘present’ thoughts to the forefront of his mind. Martin was disheveled because this was immediately after his first encounter with the Corruption. Jane Prentiss. He had just given his statement and now Jon needed to–

“Jon? What’s wrong?“ Martin asked before huffing out a staccato breath. “Look. I’m not going to lie to you about something like this. This happened. All of it.” 

Jon let himself have one last split second of confusion before pushing everything to the back of his mind as something he would deal with _later_. 

“Yes, yes I believe you. That was simply a lot to take in at once. As for further action there is a room down here in the archives that you can stay for now. Its climate controlled and well sealed. So you shouldn’t have to worry about any worms getting to you while we try to resolve this.” Jon sighed. Martin sat up straighter in his seat. 

“Oh- Oh, thats good. Yeah, thats- thats good, thanks. I just- I guess I didn’t think you’d take me seriously?”

“You say you lost your phone two weeks ago?” Jon felt the words tumble out of his mouth, following along the path this conversation had taken before. He figures that if he truly is in the past somehow it was probably for the best that he try to follow as close to the previous conversation as he could. Martin nodded, looking slightly confused. 

“Thereabouts, yeah.” 

“In the days since I have gotten several texts from your phone saying you were experiencing stomach problems. Most recently you texted that you thought it might be a parasite. I did try to call of course when you refused to elaborate but I didn’t receive any reply.” Jon mentally counted down as he waited for the text that he knew was coming. 3, 2, 1–

His phone buzzed. 

He didn’t need to look at the screen in order to see the message. The words had been burned into his memory permanently because this was the exact moment he first felt the echo of his patron. He picked up the phone anyways and looked at the screen to read it aloud.

“It’s another message from your number. It says ‘Keep him, we have had our fun. He will want to see it when the Archivist’s crimson fate arrives.’” Jon ended it with a sharp breath out because there it was. The overbearing pressure in the back of his eyes, the tolling bell of the Eye reacting to a direct challenge shaking him down to his core.

Last time he had gotten a splitting headache from the intensity of this first interaction but hadn’t had enough experience to even begin to quantify what had actually happened. Now however he could still feel the vibrations of the power still ringing through his bones. It was almost too much for him to stand and he needed a moment to breathe. He could have sworn it hadn’t been this bad before, but perhaps he had just gotten used to the feeling and had forgotten what it felt like to experience for the first time.

Jon dismissed Martin to go do, something. To go out and take a break, or go for lunch, or just go for a walk to clear his head after being trapped indoors for two weeks. Last time Martin had tried to throw himself back into his work but ended up having a panic attack alone in the archive shelves. Hopefully taking a break would stave that off for long enough for _Jon_ to have a panic attack of his own as he tried to figure out _what the hell was going on_. He doubted Martin would actually go out if left to his own devices however, so after Martin left to presumably get himself together Jon messaged Tim to ask him to come to his office as soon as he was free.

While he was waiting he pulled out some various paperwork and opened another statement, trying to look busy. When Tim arrived Jon gave him a very brief run down of what had happened to Martin and requested very politely that Tim, and Sasha if she was available make sure that Martin actually went outside and calmed down. 

Once he had said his piece he very pointedly turned back to his work in order to ignore the strange expression that Tim was shooting him. He was far too tired and confused at the moment to add remembering how to interact with a Tim that didn’t utterly loathe him to his list of problems. 

Sasha was around, and the three of them left leaving Jon alone. He finally let out a shaky breath and rubbed at his face. He shifted the papers to the side of his desk and crossed his arms on top of it, resting his head on them. 

_What the hell was going on?_

He guessed this was some sort of time travel or maybe a dream? If this was a dream or the work of the Spiral he would have expected more things to be off, but the only things out of place had been in response to things he had said differently than the first time. 

So time travel. Or maybe universe hopping like what happened in statement #0092204 with the displaced cleaner? But either way that meant that this was real and he should probably treat it as such which meant– Shit. 

It meant he should probably be hiding the fact he knew too much from Elias if he could. He had no desire to be forced into whatever tests and experiments that Elias would absolutely subject him to. 

Jon quickly turned his attention inwards, searching for the feeling of voyeuristic pride that he always felt from Elias when he was ‘checking up’ on him. Jon sighed with relief as realized he didn’t feel anything, then turned his attention to the mental door that his used to visualize his connection to the Eye. 

He found, much to his shock that the door was completely closed and sealed. There wasn’t any leaking Knowledge or the constant creeping gaze that Jon suddenly realized he didn’t feel anymore. He had figured that whatever had just happened would have left him as open and exposed to the Eye as he had been before, but this was a pleasant surprise. This meant that he could theoretically pull this off. What this was exactly _this_ was he was still unclear of at the moment but regardless it would be easier without constant surveillance. 

With that problem settled and no other ones immediately addressable Jon felt himself truly begin to slip into a panic. He had always been able to push back his more debilitating panic while he had a problem in front of him but as soon as he solved it everything he was holding at bay came crashing back into him tenfold. His breathing had all but stopped what with how shallowly his breaths were coming out, and Jon just gave up and let the wave of panic overwhelm him. 

Something that had been strange about him ever since he was a child, was that even during the deepest floods of emotions there was a small part of him that seemed to be able to sit and think about everything rationally. It was never enough of an anchor to stop himself from breaking down, or end the outburst of emotion prematurely, but it did mean that even during his worst panic attacks he was still capable of thinking. 

He still wasn’t sure what caused it. The effect seemed to pop up around the time of his encounter with ‘A Guest For Mr Spider’, but he had never been able to determine if that was because of something that Mr. Spider did, or just because of general trauma related issues.

But it worked and so thats what he did. His breath came in choked gasps and his fingers dug sharply into his thighs, but above it all, feeling even more distant from his body than normal Jon began to plan. 

What had happened last time? After the statement he had gone up to ask Elias about the fire extinguishers? No, that was later. The first time he went was for something else, it was for– 

His train of thought was interrupted as he suddenly felt the honey-silk touch of Elias’ mind against his own. It was there and gone so fast that he would have missed it if he hadn’t been on high alert. The connection was far too quick for Elias to Know anything except his emotions, which at the moment was exclusively panic.

As much as he hated to admit it Elias’s mental touch had given him a point that he could use to center himself, and pull himself out of his panic. He slowly worked his way back to a place of relative calm, and by the time he was ready to stand up he felt like he had run a marathon. He did need to go see Elias however and he would much prefer to so when he still had at least some of the mental protection that panic might give him, so he really couldn’t take a break.

As an added layer of protection Jon reached out until he felt the vibrations in his bones and tugged at it until it was back up to a level that was almost unbearable. Then he braced himself and headed for Elias’s office.


	3. Opening Gambit

Elias sat in his office mentally tracking his fledgling Archivist as he made his way from the archives up to him. He had been expecting an interesting day ever since he felt Martin emerge from beneath the roiling mask of rot that the Corruption had brought to Martin’s door. 

If he had had an option he would have preferred some other entity to make contact first, the Flesh Hives were always rash and had no consideration for the larger picture. He was, however interested in the fact that Prentiss had decided to let Martin leave, but he supposed he would get further information when Jon arrived.

While he had been expecting an interesting day, things had certain gone in ways he hadn’t predicted, and that was fascinating. While of course he knew the broad strokes of how things would play out based on a number of factors but he wasn’t actually omniscient so the minutiae was something he always had to keep a close eye on, and it was always nice to be pleasantly surprised.

For instance, he had intimately felt the deep thrum of his god as it called to its Marked. However what he hadn’t been expecting was to feel an echo of the call coming from his Archivist as well. It wasn’t a full connection, he would be concerned if it was, it was far too early for a link to the Eye just yet, but something in Jon had reacted to the feeling of protection towards his assistant. It had allowed the call to resonate within him and respond with his own claim as well. The feeling hadn’t seemed to sit well with his Archivist if the panic attack he had briefly witnessed was to be any indication. 

Based on that sequence of events he did wonder about how Jon had interacted with his assistants. Sending them out of the archives for his own privacy as he broke down seemed to directly contradict the need to protect and guard he had echoed from the Call. Although he had sent them out as a group. There hadn’t been a real opportunity for him to check motive and intent before Jon had devolved into his panic, which was a shame. Perhaps when Jon finally made his way here he would be able to Know some more about it. 

As Jon got closer Elias was startled out of his contemplation by the sheer amount of power he could feel echoing inside of him. It seemed to encompass Jon completely and the result was simply breathtaking, a vision of what he will be once he fully accepted his role. The effect was slightly soured by the panic that was still coursing through his veins that only seemed to grow as he came closer to his office. But this was a very new experience for him so it was understandable that it unsettled him, and Elias would make sure the next time Jon felt this power it would feel much more natural for him. 

This meant that he needed to be very careful with how he handled this. The easiest way for Jon to accept this as his right, his destiny, was for him to think that what he was feeling was something inherent to him. He couldn’t know that this was a gift from something that was beyond him. The connection had to be tied to his sense of self irrevocably before he was ready to learn the truth. For that to happen he needed to think that everything that was happening was entirely of his own creation. 

As Jon finally made it to his office Elias allowed himself one more moment to bask in the power radiating off his Archivist before shutting himself off from sensing it as completely as he could. This meeting would apparently have to happen without any prying on his end. It would be far to easy to slip with this much untrained power, to allow it to influence him and make his presence within it known. And for this opening gambit he needed to be nothing less than completely focused. 

Jon knocked and Elias called out. 

“The door is open, come in.” Jon walked in and Elias finally saw just how awful the man actually looked. He was quite obviously deeply shaken and Elias could tell he was still very clearly on the edge of another panic attack. The image was so at odds with how powerful he had seemed when Elias had only been looking at him with his Sight that despite his best efforts some genuine confusion and concern made its way into his tone.

“Dear lord Jon, what in the world happened to you?”

At the question Jon seemed to take a breath in and settle somewhat, which was- interesting, and certainly something to ponder over later. But in the present Jon seemed to be getting himself together and Elias simply waited for him to respond. Finally got himself under control enough to answer.

“Yes, sorry. There was- I- We-“ Jon shook his head slightly and started over. “The archives need more security.” He stated it with such surety that Elias was impressed. It had been stated with a surety that his demand would be met. He sounded like a ruler and that was something Elias was very interested in cultivating. He did however, actually need Jon to tell him why so he gently guided the conversation to where they needed to be.

“Jon, if one of the statement givers became violent or threatened you in some way there are procedures that will prevent them from returning. Increasing security wont change that.” He raised his eyebrow and waited for a response as Jon once again breathed in and centered himself. 

“No, it isn’t that. It’s Martin. He wasn’t out sick, he had been trapped inside his flat by the entity that was formerly Jane Prentiss. He only just escaped this morning and while I told him to stay in the archives until we can deal with the threat, its not enough. _I need–_ “ Jon cut himself off. The echo flared up intense enough for Elias to feel the pressure of it even in his current state of disconnect. Jon almost choked on his breath and his eye went wide as he tried to breathe through it. Elias felt it as Jon seemingly pushed the echo away from himself and directed it at Elias instead. But Elias refused to let the power find purchase on himself and it quickly began to fade. 

Elias almost ruined everything right then and there as he fought off a wide cheshire grin. This was such a promising start and his Archivist didn’t even seem to know what he was doing. He was flying completely blind and didn’t even have a direct connection to the Eye and he was already wielding his power more naturally than Gertrude ever had. As the power faded from around the two of them an unreadable expression crossed Jon’s face and he began to relax more.

“Sorry, I am feeling, slightly the worse for wear after this whole experience. As I was saying, I _would like_ for my team to feel safe inside the archives and I believe increased security would go a great distance to making that happen.” Elias nodded and made a note on a pad on his desk more for appearance sake than anything else. 

“I will do what I can. You may go, thank you.” As Jon began to leave, he lowered his block on his powers because he had never been able to deny himself when it came to their god’s power, and called out, 

“I hope you realize that the security wont be able to go out in the field with them, so if they’re in danger while outside the institute…” Elias let himself trail off and savored the spike in energy as Jon’s protectiveness caused one last echo of the Call to resonate before it finally sputtered out. Jon simply nodded tightly and left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is my first time writing Elias's perspective and any advice is Very welcome so I know if I need to adjust him going forwards!


	4. Consequences

Jon made it back to the archives through sheer stubbornness and the tail ends of the adrenaline that had gotten him through his conversation with Elias. The ploy of pulling on the echoing power until it drowned out anything else seemed to have worked. Elias had kept his mind to himself right up until the end when Jon had walked out the door. Even then it was simply passive, not Looking. However that protection had come at a cost. In this body he had no experience with any of the powers or situations he had been used to before. He could recognize them and he understood how to use them. Even how to hide from them to an extent, but his actual tolerance of them was still firmly zero and Jon could feel the cost fast approaching. 

Stumbling the last few steps into his office Jon collapsed into his desk chair and tried to brace himself against whatever was starting to happen. He spared a moment to be thankful that the others hadn’t returned yet and so he could hopefully ride this out without anyone the wiser. 

The heat of a fever began to pulse through Jon’s body, snaking along the paths that he had used to pull the power into him. It was like boiling mirrors poured under his skin refracting his pain and attention far beyond where it should be. 

The ice cold pain hit next and when it did it came in waves. His whole body would throb with an ache that came from everywhere at once sweeping away the fever hot burn, before compressing into a tight ball of agony that seemed to scour over each and every inch of him. Moving methodically from head to toe before fading away and leaving him breathless. 

The last thing to go was his sight, colors pulsing and rippling as items around him seemed to sharpen far too much around the edges, drawing his gaze, before fading into the backdrop again. Tears began to spill down his cheeks without any control and the last image he saw before colors and shapes finally blurred into a formless darkness was his hand stained bright red from where he had wiped at his face. 

Time passed strangely for a while as he felt his body pulse and burn and throb in turn. Somehow he had ended up on the floor, whether it was voluntary or not would have to wait until he could feel anything other than this whirlwind to check himself for bruises. There were points in which he was sure he had fallen unconscious, others where he had to have been dreaming, and throughout it all was the overbearing feeling that something had forced its way into him, taken root, and started to grow. 

The pain began to fade and he slowly, oh so slowly regained control over his body. The first thing he did was turn his focus inward once again. His body could wait. So much of this rode on keeping his mind as secret as possible, and he needed to know how much damage control he had to do. 

Elias was thankfully absent and there didn’t seem to be any indication that he had peeked in while Jon was. Busy. The door was much less open than he had expected after pulling so much power from the Eye. It was firmly shut and only a few hairline cracks had appeared in the seal around it. It was nowhere near enough for any Knowledge to leak through yet so that was comforting.

Just as he was about to pull back out of his mind and assess the damage to his physical body he felt something new mentally connect with him. It didn’t seem to have a presence in the same way his other connections did, it was smaller somehow. Instead of a door it felt closer to a quiet sound at the back of his mind. If he listened closely he could bring it more into focus and it seemed like- It sounded like a cassette tape being played. 

Before he could press further into this new problem, he heard the sound of footsteps descending the stairs to the archives. He hurried to sit up and tried to wipe away the blood in the hopes of making himself at least somewhat presentable. His eyes and bones still hurt and he was fairly sure that he had pulled some muscles in his back because even sitting completely still was painful. 

While he was doing this, because his luck has always been atrocious, the door to his office opened. 

“Jon? We’re back! We got some actual sheets for Martin beca– Jon is that blood?!” Sasha was the first through the door, but her exclamation brought Tim and Martin rushing in behind her. Jon rubbed at his eyes and gave a quiet groan, casting this brain out to try to find an explanation that wasn’t ‘I have magic powers given to me by a entity I don’t understand and tend to make foolish choices with them.’ Which may have been accurate, but not helpful in this circumstance. 

“It’s fine. I’m fine. I got blindsided by a migraine and got a nosebleed. Im fine. Give me a moment and I can help you–“ Tim cut him off

“Nope. Wrong answer boss. _We_ are going to set up Martin in a workaholics wet dream. _You_ are going home because you look like shit.” Jon tried to open his mouth again and then closed it again at Sasha’s concerned look. 

“Yes alright. Let me at least clean up the blood first.” Jon started to gesture to the floor next to him where he distinctly remember bleeding a significant amount onto, but aborted the movement when he looked over and saw it was gone. Great. Just what he needed. Another mystery. 

At this point Martin came back into the room holding a wet hand towel and handed it to Jon with a concerned look on his face. 

“Here you go. Are you _sure_ you’ll be alright getting yourself home? This is a _lot_ of blood.” Jon took the towel and shook his head. 

“Thank you Martin but I will be fine. Now, if I could please have a moment?” The others left, and after getting the blood off as best he could he carefully stood up to leave. 

Pointedly ignoring the concerned looks, he gathered his things and headed up the stairs and out of the institute.


	5. Contingency Plans

About a block away from the institute Jon slowly became aware that the sound of a cassette being played was fading. He hadn’t really registered the fact that he had still been hearing it, but as it slowly disappeared he became acutely aware of its absence. He sighed and added it to the ever growing list of things that he really needed answers for, and shifted his focus to what he needed to do next. 

There was someone who he could probably go to for support but he wasn’t quite sure how well he’d be received so he needed to plan what he said wisely. He had a way to start the conversation thankfully, but everything depended on how she would respond. Should he start with his appearance in the archives or–

His thought process was abruptly interrupted when the fading whir of a cassette suddenly increased in volume and was overlaid with a harsh static. Jon was still slightly mentally reeling from the shift when he felt Elias’s Eye settle onto his shoulders like a lead weight. 

Jon let himself have the briefest of moments to panic over what Elias could have Seen if he had Looked at him before the static had interrupted his thoughts. Breathing out forcefully and centering himself he forced himself to think exclusively of what he was doing next. 

He was going to the tube. He was walking the rest of his way to his flat. He was unlocking the door. He was going to the kitchen. He was checking the fridge. He was disappointed in what he found so he obviously needed to go the the store. He was heading to the store. He was picking up a basket. He was- 

The weight of Elias’s gaze lifted off his shoulders and Jon ‘s shoulders slumped in relief. He rubbed at his ear as the static noise he had been hearing began to fade as well. Jon rolled his shoulders and breathed out harshly from his nose. If that was a hint of what was to come he really needed to figure out a better strategy than only focusing on the present or else nothing was going to get done.

As he paid for his groceries and left he started spinning the problem around in his mind. Elias had blindspots, that much was evident by the fact that they were able to get him arrested before, and presumably by the fact that he hadn’t immediately caught on to the fact that Jon was not the same person who walked into work that morning. Well, technically. 

So the only techniques that seemed to work were panicking, pulling a concerning amount of power into himself, or a carefully balancing a combination of distractions and his own arrogance. The last two were not things he wished to replicate unless completely necessary so that left panic. Which was not ideal or really particularly feasible for any extended amount of time. He might still be able to think during a panic attack, but he wasn’t able to do much else. Although, maybe if he figured out how to do his weird two layer thinking with normal thoughts instead of with strong emotions? Or perhaps get better at maintaining two trains of thought at the same time and switching between the two as needed? 

Jon was brought back to the present by the realization that he had made it to Georgie’s flat. Setting his bag down by his feet he got out a head of lettuce and knocked on the door. 

At first there wasn’t any response and Jon began to mentally curse himself out. This was a stupid idea, she might not even remember what this meant and the last time this version of her had seen him was- well, he wouldn’t blame her for dumping him back onto the streets. She might not even be home, and he was standing here holding a head of lettuce like and idiot for no reason, he should really go. Now.

Just as he was about to turn around and leave the door opened, and there was Georgie.

“Jon? What are you doing here?” And in that exact moment he realized that he had planned to come up with what he was going to say on the way over. Instead he had gotten distracted by other things and so now he frankly had no idea where to start. At a complete loss for what to do Jon simply handed her the head of lettuce and tried to get his thoughts in order.

Georgie looked down at her hands and back up at him her face flicking from confusion to irritation to recognition and finally to a wary squint. 

“Jon, the whole point behind supernatural contingency plans are that they will only be acted on during that contingency. We swore-“ Jon cut her off, the words tumbling out quickly.

“Yes we swore we wouldn’t ever use any of the Plans as a joke or anything frivolous in order to keep the integrity of the belief needed for these plans to be effective. Yes. I know. Can I come in?” Georgie looked back down at the lettuce in her hands and moved aside to let Jon in scrubbing at her face with her free hand. 

“Time travel Jon? Really? You’re telling me time travel is actually a thing we have to deal with now. It's not just a hypothetical situation that we planned for while stoned off our asses? Really?” Jon lent down to grab his bag of groceries and replied,

“Unfortunately. Would it make it better if I said I legitimately didn’t mean to do it?” Georgie sighed as she followed him in and set the lettuce down on the side table.

“Honestly? I'm not sure, but you have a lot of things to tell me, so im going to make myself some tea. Want any?”

“Yes,” he lifted the bag and added “I brought your favorites?“ Instead of looking appreciative or considering, Georgie winced. 

“Its that bad? What in the world have you gotten yourself into this time Jon? No, don’t tell me right now. Tea needs to happen first, you can just sit there and, I don’t know, refrain from doing any future shit for a few minutes.” Jon sat down on the couch,

“What does ‘future shit’ entail? I mean i’m from the future. My existence is ‘future shit.’” 

“Listen Jon, I have no idea. This was supposed to be a hypothetical situation we thought up because we watch too much sci-fi. And while I trust that this isn’t some weird elaborate prank, i’m not entirely sure I believe you.” Georgie called back and Jon let his head fall back against the wall.

“I do have something that you told me in the future that you definitely haven’t told me in this time if that would help?” He was sort of hoping for Georgie to say no because it definitely wasn’t something he wanted to bring up, but if it helped he would.

“Sure why not. Hit me.” Georgie came in and set his mug on the table in front of him, but he didn’t move his head away from the wall and focused firmly on the ceiling as he said,

“You can’t feel fear because before you met a cadaver spoke to you and said ‘The moment that you die will feel exactly the same as this one.’” Jon heard her breath catch in her throat and finally looked at her again. She seemed taken aback for a moment but determination quickly overtook it.

“Okay, future man I believe you. Tell me everything and don’t skimp, we have all night.” So Jon took a breath in and began to explain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jon and Georgie are absolutely the type of people who would make contingency plans for supernatural events.


	6. A Guest for Mr. Sims

By the time the knock at the door came, the two of them had worked through most of Jon’s snacks. three more mugs of tea, and were debating whether they should move on to something stronger. Jon had run his hand through his hair so many times it was sticking up in strange directions and Georgie had gotten out a pen and paper and was trying to create a timeline. 

They both looked to the door confused, and Jon felt himself get up to open it. He didn’t necessarily want to be opening the door but it just seemed to be the polite thing to–

“Jon?” Georgie’s voice cut through the trance and Jon could suddenly feel the thin feather light strands of power that had been pulling at him. Shaking himself slightly he mentally brushed off the webbing, hearing what seemed to be a soft hiss of static at the action. Turning away from the door slightly to look back at Georgie he pointedly said

“It seems we have a guest,  _ they were polite enough to knock _ so I thought I should let them in. But it’s your flat so if you want I can go out to meet them instead.” Georgie looked confused for a moment before catching Jon’s meaning, her eyebrows shot up and she looked down at the timeline, 

“Did this happen-?” Jon shook his head. 

“No, and I can’t tell why it is now. Should I go and see who it is?” 

Jon felt webs reach out and connect with him again, stronger this time, but he was enough on edge to be able to brace himself against it for now. This caused the hiss of static to pick up again. What was that? Was it a warning system? Whatever it was he couldn’t let himself be distracted right now. Jon mentally shook himself and refocused.

“If it’s not someone you know I can always just go out to see what they want and send them on their way?” Georgie shrugged and shook her head, tucking the timeline underneath some spare paper. 

“I have just as many questions as you.” Jon nodded and finally let the webs tug him to the door. 

Jon opened the door, not quite sure who he was expecting on the other side. But when he saw it was Annabelle Cane he couldn’t find it in himself to be surprised. She was dressed in a simple dress and hoodie that seemed to shift and move, catching the light in strange ways. He had a feeling that it was designed for people to be unable to look away from it. A feeling that solidified when he pulled his gaze off of it to look Annabelle head on and she seemed surprised for a spilt-second. Carefully wiping any hint of recognition from his face, Jon asked.

“Can I help you?” She gave no response but Jon felt himself stepping to the side to let her in. If he hadn’t been on alert for it he wouldn’t have even noticed that his motions weren’t his own in that moment. 

Jon followed he back to where Georgie was sitting and watched as Annabelle choose one of the seats and sat down. She didn’t look inclined to speak or do anything else after that, and after a very awkward silence Georgie shot Jon the most confused and incredulous look in her repertoire. Jon returned it and then shifted his gaze to Annabelle and asked with a deliberate slowness,

“Is there something you want?” Annabelle gave a small smile, 

“Why don’t you just  _ ask _ me?” Jon let out a huff, deciding right then and there he was going to play the obvious idiot as long as he possibly could. He was very tired of other people involved with the powers assuming he knew everything. 

“I was under the impression that I just did. Do you need me to do so again?” Annabelle squinted at him slightly.

“I would like you to Ask me, not simply ask. I don’t think thats too much of a task for an Archivist, do you?” Jon shot a look at Georgie to see if she caught on to what was going on, and saw that she absolutely had and was giving him a ‘really?’ look in response. 

“I’m not sure what my job has anything to do with any of this but if you insist. What do you want?” Instead of the frustration that Jon had been expecting from Annabelle, she to grow much more interested in the conversation, leaning forward in her seat slightly. 

“Do you truly not know what i’m talking about? How in the world did you get to this point so naive?” Her head tilted to the side but it happened too fast and seemed to go slightly too far to the side like a string holding it up had suddenly been given too much slack. “I know you’re new to this game, but it seems unlikely that you’ve gotten to where you are now without learning  _ anything. _ ” She paused “I wonder…” 

Jon could already feel something building in the air between them and so he wasn’t surprised that when Annabelle began to speak again there was an undertone to her voice that sounded of thousands of skittering legs. 

“Why don’t you  _ take my _ –“ Whatever she had been about to say was suddenly drowned out by the loudest static he had ever heard. 

It hit him like a bullet to the head and his legs buckled. He kept himself standing through spiteful determination, closing his eyes tightly and slamming a hand onto his ear as he braced against the wall with the other. It didn’t help of course, the noise was coming from inside him and drowning everything else out. If this thing that was happening to him was actually a warning system it was not only  _ late _ but also _ actively preventing him from protecting himself. _

His eyes snapped open when he felt someone touch his arm. It was Georgie and she was saying something that he couldn’t hear over the rush of static still ringing in his ears. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chap is a bit on the shorter side! Also say hi to Annabelle!


	7. Said the Spider to the Fly

“–take my Statement?” The creature finished and Georgie tore her eyes away from it at Jon’s pained gasp. Jon looked like he was about to collapse, one hand shoved against his ear and leaning so heavily against the wall he looked about to fall into it. She had been sort of enjoying Jon playing annoyingly clueless, it had been a frequent occurrence in uni before he had started T and someone was being a prick. He was still amusingly good at pretending to be genuinely confused, but apparently whatever this thing was, it had reached the end of its patience and decided to stop playing at being polite. Trying her best to put herself between Jon and the thing, Georgie rushed over to his side, trying to brace him the best she could. 

“Jon? Jon what’s going on? Jon, can you hear me? Nod if you can hear me.” When nothing happened except another pained gasp from Jon she rounded on the creature, “What did you do? He doesn’t know what you want, so what are you doing to him?” 

There wasn’t any reply besides fascinated staring and so Georgie gave up on that for the moment and lead Jon into the kitchen. She him down and got him a glass of water before bracing herself. While she wasn’t scared of the thing in her living room that didn’t mean she was oblivious to how dangerous it was. 

However it had obviously done something to Jon and was invading her home. So if she couldn’t get it to leave, she could at least get some answers. Taking one last breath in she went back out to face it. 

It was still sitting in the same chair, and looking intensely curious. When Georgie came to a stop just out of arm's reach its gaze flicked back up to her face and suddenly there were eight eyes staring at her instead of two. Georgie had known this thing wasn’t human and she had figured out that it had something to do with spiders based on Jon referencing the creepy spider book he has read as a kid earlier so she held her ground and demanded. 

“What do you want with Jon.” The eyes blinked in a ripple motion in surprise before flickering to the door behind her. 

“Why I could ask the same thing. What does an End-Claimed want with an Archivist? You have no treaties or alliances with anyone, why be so violent in protecting him from something that isn’t a threat?” Georgie‘s mouth almost dropped open incredulously as she gestured at the kitchen where she had left Jon

“Whatever you did almost sent him to the ground! That's a threat!” Then the rest of the sentence registered and then she had even more questions, 

“Wait, what does ‘end claimed’ mean, and you keep saying archivist like it means something. And i'm protecting him because he obviously can’t protect himself against you. We don’t need a pact or whatever to help each other. We’re friends. I don’t know how you go about your creepy life but in mine friends don’t need treaties!” 

Georgie was breathing heavily by the end and wanted nothing more than to scrub her hand over her face, but that would mean taking her eyes off the thing in front of her. And considering it looked like it was considering how best to take her apart that seemed like a very poor choice. It stood up, seeming to unfold from the chair and despite nothing visually changing it seemed to encompass much more space than before. 

The person she had been before the corpse would have ran for the door, hell the person she had been only a few hours ago would have at least backed up a step or so, but right now she was furious. This spider thing had hurt Jon for information that, if he hadn’t time traveled or whatever he absolutely wouldn’t have. Then it started spouting this ‘claimed’ bullshit that she was fairly sure that even  _ this _ Jon didn’t know. So yeah, she was pissed. She opened her mouth to start demanding answers again when, without her say so, her mouth closed and she did end up taking that step back. When the thing spoke again there was a note of irritation in its voice that hadn’t been there previously. 

“I didn’t do anything to your Archivist. I was simply offering payment. I need some answers from him and payment or trade for those Eye aligned is typically information. If I had known you had chosen to Mark him for your Terminus I would have offered something befitting the End to  _ you _ instead as payment for his time. However, if you truly haven’t done anything to him then something is actually wrong. And since he can’t give me the answers I want if he’s dead or broken, i’m going to go see what I can do to fix him. Will you be coming?” Georgie squared her shoulders and kept her legs locked in place against the urge to back up anymore. It wasn’t like she was scared of the thing so she had no reason to move, it was just because of whatever weird aura this thing was giving off. 

“Yeah, no. Im not blind. Even if you’re telling the truth about not doing anything to him? Whatever you decided on as ‘payment’ was obviously exclusively for your own benefit. You only decided to try whatever it was, a ‘statement’ or whatever, because you weren’t getting the answers you wanted.” The thing had started to smile halfway through her tirade and now was staring at her intently with open amusement. 

“For someone so confused you’ve mastered your gifts very well. Are you sure you’re not his keeper?” Georgie just glared back. “No I suppose you wouldn’t think of it that way would you. What about a compromise? You go and try to fix your Archivist while I stay here, out of your way. If you succeed bring him to me and  _ he _ can choose his price for my questions.” 

Georgie nodded sharply and turned to leave, it seemed like the best she was going to get. And she did want to check on Jon regardless of what this spider wanted her the want. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am very aware that the second we get an actual conversation w Annabelle im going to have to come back through and do some editing but up till then im sticking to my version!   
> Once again sorry for the short chapter, they're going to pick up in length again soon


	8. Fic Has Moved

Sorry about the fakeout chapter everyone, I went back and rewrote this entire fic so instead of editing this one i just ended up reposting. 

[you can find it here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22568110/chapters/53930404)

thank you so much for everyone who has been following this story, I know it’s been an age and a half so thanks for sticking with me


End file.
